POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY, or SQUATTER SOVEREIGN TY. Terms in American history used interchangeably by many writers and having reference to the right of the inhabi tants of a Territory to regulate their internal affairs in their own way without the intervention of Congress. Strictly speaking, time term popular sovereignty was applicable only in the case of an organized Territory, while squatter sover eignty applied only to an unorganized territory inhabited by 'squatters.' The theory of popular sovereignty grew out of the discussions over the question as to whether slavery should be per mitted in the territory acquired from Mexico. The first assertion of the doctrine by a man of prominence appeared in the noted Nicholson let ter of General Cass, December 24. IS-17, in which he expressed the opinion that the people of the Territories should be left regulate their in ternal concerns in their own way." The new doc trine was accepted by the South and was quite generally regarded with favor as being in har mony with the American traditions of local self go•ernment. and furthermore as relieving both Congress and the States from the responsibility of settling a vexatious question. The compromise measures of 1850, in providing for the organiza tion of New Slexico and Utah as Territories with out any reference to slavery, would seem to have been the first recognition of the prineiple.although,
on account of the evasive language used, it is diffi cult to an whether popular sovereignty was a feature of the bill or root. In the later discussions the Southern Democrats claimed that it u-as not, while Stephen A. Douglas. the great champion of the new theory, asserted that it was. In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Bill (q.v.) expressly adopted the principle as the basis for the government of those Territories. Shortly afterwards the South came to repudiate the doctrine of popular sove reignty as dangerous to slavery, and put forward the claim that neither Congress nor the Territo rial authorities could legislate against slavery in the Territories, but that it u-as their constitution al duty to protect the right of property in slaves as recognized by slave States. There is an obiter die turn in the famous Dred Scott case (q.v.) which upholds the Southern contention as far as the na tional Government is concerned. The contro versy regarding the question of popular sover eignty, as involved in the Lecompton Constitu tion (q.v.) for Kansas, brought about a division between the Douglas Democrats of the North and the more radical Southerners, which eventually developed into the split of 1860. With the Civil War and the abolition of slav ery the question lost its significance.